The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Camellia, botanically known as Camellia sasanqua, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Green 97-039’.
The new Camellia is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Fairhope, Ala. The objective of the breeding program is to create new vigorous and freely flowering Camellia cultivars having unique and attractive flower color and flower for an extended period of time.
The new Camellia originated from an open-pollination in 1997, in Fairhope, Ala., of Camellia sasanqua ‘Mine-No-Yuki’, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with an unknown selection of Camellia sasanqua, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Camellia was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated open-pollination in a controlled outdoor nursery environment in Fairhope, Ala. in November, 2002.
Asexual reproduction of the new Camellia by terminal cuttings taken in a controlled greenhouse environment in Fairhope, Ala. since August, 2003, has shown that the unique features of this new Camellia are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.